NRC gives Axiom six months to secure Grayling theme park financing

LANSING - The Michigan Natural Resources Commission (NRC) gave developers six months to obtain financing for the $161-million proposed Grayling theme park project, during their Aug. 14 meeting in Lansing.

According to Mary Detloff, DNR spokesperson, if developers meet the deadline, which includes a review of finances by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and an independent third party, they have an additional nine months to get state and federal permits.

"Once (they) meet those two conditions, we'll transfer the property," said Detloff.

Gaila Gilliland, Crawford County Economic Development Partnership director, attended the Aug. 14 meeting and reportedly stated before the commission, "The people of Crawford County have a right to believe in the memorandum of understating that set this land aside for economic development."

Gilliland, supportive of the theme park development, spoke during a telephone interview Wednesday about the economic impact to Northern Michigan, specifically in Grayling.

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"I believe with a double-digit poverty rate, unemployment approaching double digits, nearly 70 percent of our land being state owned, we need economic development here," she said.

"We need money, we need the jobs and we need the hope that a project like this gives us," Gilliland added.

Patrick Crosson, project manager, believes the project can be an economic generator for the region.

Crosson estimates the park will generate $200,000 a year in taxes while under construction. Additionally, the first year of operation, the park is expected to generate an estimated $1.6 million and continue to grow larger in following years.

Developers claim the park, at Four Mile and I-75, could employ up to 2,000 people, 700 full time.

Though Marvin Roberson, Sierra Club forest ecologist, is not against economic development, he is against the sale of state land to Axiom Entertainment.

"What I'm against is selling public land for a project based on fantasy," Roberson added. "(Crosson's) plan is not optimistic - it's fraudulent."

"The problem with Roberson is, if he can't validate it, it's not true," Crosson responded.

"We can validate everything and have answered everything," he added. "They want to misrepresent it - his intention is to disrupt the process."

The Sierra Club, the oldest and largest environmental organization in the country with approximately 25,000 members in Michigan, does not object to the land being sold for economic development.

"But selling the land has to be for a purpose that has some semblance of reality," Roberson said.